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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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 Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 7:23 am Post subject: |
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Ah yes...
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 7:38 am Post subject: |
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Ah, the open road of Africa...
You never know who you will meet...
or what...
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 9:05 am Post subject: |
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Vanislander I'd reccomend well developed tourist oriented countries like Botswana or Kenya to you for a starting point.
i'm lucky in that I have family in South Africa and Zimbabwe..so I don't need no tour guide.
Apart from that you avoid the gun toting hellholes like Sierra Leone and the like.
But your final picture is what makes it all worthwhile......or this..
Actually I've had elephant walk unexpectedly into the road a few times. Heart stopping moment..reverse and back up if you are far enough off..or just turn the engine off (and pray) if you're surrounded. |
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Wangja
Joined: 17 May 2004
Location: Seoul, Yongsan
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| Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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| rapier wrote: |
| Demonicat wrote: |
| lived for 18 months in West africa (mali). It was a harsh, unforgiving time and I witnessed many things that I will never forget... .... |
Great reply, I wish more people had actually been there to share their impressions.
Someone like wangja would have been horrified and vowed never to return after his suitcase was stolen at the airport in Ghana i guess..or perhaps he had to pay a bribe to pass a roadblock.
But for those who've known it a little longer there is a far deeper feeling. ....
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Wangja has actually been there. He lived and worked in Africa for about 7 years and has developed that "deeper feeling". This "deeper feeling" is untainted by the rose-tinted spectacles of a childhood spent in a country stolen for 100 GBP (if I remember well) and, by reason of trucculence on the part of the white Rhodesian governemnt, all but forcibly taken back. That this "deeper feeling" does not accord with Rapier's is therefore hardly surprising. Yes, and the shock of being uprooted from home and dumped in a LA house in the north-east of England does perhaps gp some way to excusing Rapier's bitterness.
Yes, there are wondefrful safari parks where one can shoot wonderful photos of wonderful animanls in wonderful surroundings. Who mourns the day when one was not restricted to a mere photo-shoot, huh? Wangja has seen some wonderful sights, for example the 10 metre standing wave at the cataracts south of Brazzavlle/Kinshahsa on the Congo river. He was also in the country when due to incompetence, a Brazza-Kinshasa ferry's engine failed and the ferry was swept south and over those cataracts killing almost 300 people on board.
The reality is far from the touristy image Rapier seeks to portray. A few posters can see behind the gloss.
Although Wangja did have to pay bribes to pass through the exit formalites at Murtala Mohammed - Lagos - airport to leave Nigeria, he has never had to pay a bribe to pass a roadblock. He has driven many thousands of kilometres (albeit on the right of the road, unlike Rapier who may have been voluntarily confined to the left side) and has passed many roadblocks. He has occasionally almost dumped through the fundamental orifice at the aggressive treatment by AK-47 armed "militia" at such roadblocks. He was appalled by the racism prevalent in so manay areas, especially Nigeria.
Wangja's case was never lost a case at Ghana airport, although one was indeed stolen from his car elsewhere.
What Wangja sees, is the reality: for example, the open sewers of Ife (pron Ee-fay) capital of Yorubaland, the corruption at all levels, the incompetence, the disease, the lot of the people - not just the poor, the violence of one African to another African, the tribal fighting arising from the hatred of one tribe for another.
If the thread title read something like "a few parts of Africa are the greatest", Wangja would be more accommodating. In Wangja's expeience, most of Africa is, as he said above, an armpit.
Take Rapier's advice: stay in the tourist areas and remain blind to the reality. You will probably enjoy. |
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bosintang
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Location: In the pot with the rest of the mutts
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| Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 7:17 pm Post subject: |
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I've never been to Africa, but when I think of it the first things that pop in my head are corruption, war, ethnic cleansing, child soldiers, HIV/AIDS, land reform disasters, lowest life expectancies, highest infant mortality rates, environmental pillaging, large debts, etc. etc.
The fact that the continent is beautiful and has gameparks for spoiled rich tourists to snap photos in, is an after-thought. Let's face it, outside of very few countries, the continent is a train wreck. |
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endo
Joined: 14 Mar 2004
Location: Seoul...my home
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| Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 9:44 am Post subject: |
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Great thread!
So Rapier, what are some of the best countries to visit in Africa and how long approxametley do you need to spend in each.
I hope to teach in Ethiopia in the future and then travel southwards down the eastern portion of the continent to Cape Town. I honestly have no interest in west Africa. |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 11:55 pm Post subject: |
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| endo wrote: |
| I honestly have no interest in west Africa. |
Pourquoi? Tu ne sais pas francais?
In terms of history and culture and untouristy development, West Africa seems like a traveller's goldmine. |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 4:23 am Post subject: |
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| endo wrote: |
Great thread!
So Rapier, what are some of the best countries to visit in Africa and how long approxametley do you need to spend in each.
I hope to teach in Ethiopia in the future and then travel southwards down the eastern portion of the continent to Cape Town. I honestly have no interest in west Africa. |
Africa is vast, and like the new yorker who has never bothered to visit the statue of liberty, I have only spent time in 4 countries there, Zimbabwe, Zambia, S.Africa, and Mozambique. All I would describe as dangerous to white foreigners now, unless you are with a trusted local who knows the area.But, all of them incredibly beautiful in their own ways, with a lot of potential (and formerly well run).
However nowadays the safest and most catered to tourism countries so I hear are Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia. if you're after savnha/plains wildlife, teeming herds of game in variety, stick to south of the sahara..more or less southern Africa.
To me..wildlife is what its all about..these countries have significant stocks of game as well as being relatively politically stable. My information is 7 years old however... |
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endo
Joined: 14 Mar 2004
Location: Seoul...my home
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| Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 7:20 am Post subject: |
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| VanIslander wrote: |
| endo wrote: |
| I honestly have no interest in west Africa. |
Pourquoi? Tu ne sais pas francais?
In terms of history and culture and untouristy development, West Africa seems like a traveller's goldmine. |
Je parlais un peu de francais.
Perhaps i'm lacking sufficient info on West Africa to totally write it off. I did go on a date with a girl from Maurtania and she was stunning, so that could be a positive.
Seriously, I think its lack of development in terms of tourism is a huge factor in my lack of interest in that region. I will most likely be travelling by myself so safety is a concern.
By the way Rapier, you said that S. Africa was dangerous for white tourists. How bad is it? I was planning a Johannesburg-Lesotho-Durban-Cape Town trip solo.
And how the herb in Africa? I hear its very popular, especially in South Africa. |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 8:03 pm Post subject: |
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[quote="endo"]
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| By the way Rapier, you said that S. Africa was dangerous for white tourists. How bad is it? I was planning a Johannesburg-Lesotho-Durban-Cape Town trip solo. |
I huess indytrucks would be able to better advise you, as he was there recently. I was there back in 97, driven around by various friends and relations who live there.
I never really felt safe there, because you sense that opportunistic crime could overtake you if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, on your own, unarmed or whatever. as a solo traveller, you would be at risk. For example if your car broke down, what you gonna do? it could be many miles to the nearest help, and so on. In which time any couple of tsotsis finding you vulnerable could have robed you or worse.
All my cousins carried a firearm with them, and were safety conscious. Had to put foot to pedal a few times: once threatened by drunken police at a roadblock, another time to get past some maniac walking on the highway swinging a pole at vehicles. Its the sort of place people go shopping in secure, protected shopping centres and are nervous stopping at traffic lights. Thank God nothing happened to me, but they all had recent storis of people they knew getting knifed, murdered, etc- and 2 people I know have shot aggressive intruders on their property.
I would say, do S.Africa with other people you can rely on, who know a bit about it, or with an organised tour group.
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| And how the herb in Africa? I hear its very popular, especially in South Africa |
Dagga? Traditionally whites have usually regarded this as a degenerate thing, although popular amongst blacks.. However it has become more widespread in recent times. Sure..easily available and cheap. |
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Panic Button
Joined: 15 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:52 pm Post subject: |
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A friend of mine was volunteering in The Gambia and I went to stay there about two years ago.
Gambia is fast becoming a big tourist place with flashy resorts and the like, and the plane from England was full of the kind of people who looked like they were never going to step outside of their resort copound for two weeks.
My mate, on the other hand was staying in a tiny village right next to the Senegalese border, which was where i stayed.
It was a truly unforgettable experience; sad and happy, harsh and comfortable, difficult and easy.
I stayed in the house of a teacher who worked in the village school, which was a concrete hut with two tiny rooms. This was by far the best house in the village, most of the others being made from everything from mud to corrogated iron. Nothing could prepare me for experiencing either third world conditions like that, or genuine friendliness and hospitality of the levels which I recieved.
My African experience was everything the OP described Africa as. The most beautiful land and people imaginable, the most amazing music, culture, and food imaginable.
Being the smallest country on the continent, The Gambia doesn't have most of the large mammals left that you would associate with Africa, but I was to busy and stunned to notice this most of the time I was there.
Also spent a few days travelling up the north bank river Gambia with a local lad, without whom the route which we took would have been entirely impossible and too dangerous. I've never been as scared as I was on a tiny wooden canoe on the river, with a Gambian insiting that we took a gun to reduce the threat from hippos and crocodiles.
Also went to an enormous weed plantation on a disputed island between the northern Senegalese border. When I say that there were fields of marijuana as far as the eye could see its not an exaggeration.
All in all, by far the greatest, most intense travel experience of my life.
I only hope that one day I'll see more of Africa. |
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larrrry
Joined: 31 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 8:30 pm Post subject: |
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| I travelled throughout Zimbabwe (before it was completely ruined by Mugabe). It was by far the most exciting travel experience of my life. For anyone interested in nature, wildlife and the outdoors, Africa is the place to go. The risks are quite real, but the people are generally friendly and if you stay cautious you should have no problems. A few things to be careful for - poisonous snakes, crocodiles, muggings at night, dehydration. |
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